What do you think?
Rate this book
The Antiphon
The important long play by Djuna Barnes.
148 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
3 people are currently reading
278 people want to read
About the author
Djuna Barnes
91 books568 followersDjuna Barnes was an artist, illustrator, journalist, playwright, and poet associated with the early 20th-century Greenwich Village bohemians and the Modernist literary movement.
Barnes has been cited as an influence by writers as diverse as Truman Capote, William Goyen, Isak Dinesen, John Hawkes, and Anaïs Nin. Bertha Harris described her work as "practically the only available expression of lesbian culture we have in the modern western world" since Sappho.
Barnes played an important part in the development of 20th century English language modernist writing and was one of the key figures in 1920s and 30s bohemian Paris after filling a similar role in the Greenwich Village of the teens. Her novel Nightwood became a cult work of modern fiction, helped by an introduction by T. S. Eliot. It stands out today for its portrayal of lesbian themes and its distinctive writing style. Since Barnes's death, interest in her work has grown and many of her books are back in print.
Barnes has been cited as an influence by writers as diverse as Truman Capote, William Goyen, Isak Dinesen, John Hawkes, and Anaïs Nin. Bertha Harris described her work as "practically the only available expression of lesbian culture we have in the modern western world" since Sappho.
Barnes played an important part in the development of 20th century English language modernist writing and was one of the key figures in 1920s and 30s bohemian Paris after filling a similar role in the Greenwich Village of the teens. Her novel Nightwood became a cult work of modern fiction, helped by an introduction by T. S. Eliot. It stands out today for its portrayal of lesbian themes and its distinctive writing style. Since Barnes's death, interest in her work has grown and many of her books are back in print.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 18, 2019
I was excited to read this, being a big fan of Nightwood and of experimental dramatic works. A pseudo-Jacobean tragedy in verse inspired by Shelley’s The Cenci, never performed on the stage??? (I am afraid this is indeed the kind of thing I get excited about.) I was hoping I’d stumbled on a lost classic. And, well, it is one—sort of. It is certainly as good as lost, at least: good luck getting your hands on a copy. But is it unjustly obscure, banished to oblivion by critics who missed the point? Maybe. I can’t really say, since the point probably missed me, too.
The language here is unmistakably Djuna Barnes, and if nothing else, The Antiphon affirms that she wrote like no one ever has and like no one ever will. Nonetheless, I found this a somewhat frustrating read. There’s simply very little to grasp here, apart from the baroque richness of the poetry. The characters, as such, lack character, all speaking in the same stylized register; and because little is stated simply or directly, the conflict never becomes concrete. It makes perfect sense that no one’s staged the play: there simply isn’t enough drama here to sustain it. Too many pages pass in which it’s unclear who is talking to whom about what and why, and what little action there is tends not to clarify things.
Nonetheless, this is the kind of work that is so singularly itself, and so boldly unlike other things, that you have to admire its existence on some level. If Barnes was trying to become the modernist Shakespeare, she fails not for lack of talent, but because high modernism is opposed to many of the things that make Shakespeare accessible and enduringly popular. The result is a work of art a little too rarefied, too closed-off, for its own good—and alas, this is probably the reason for the play’s total obscurity. It is, for better or worse, really not for everybody. That being said, it is probably for somebody, and I hope that when they find it, it’s exactly the lost classic they were looking for.
The language here is unmistakably Djuna Barnes, and if nothing else, The Antiphon affirms that she wrote like no one ever has and like no one ever will. Nonetheless, I found this a somewhat frustrating read. There’s simply very little to grasp here, apart from the baroque richness of the poetry. The characters, as such, lack character, all speaking in the same stylized register; and because little is stated simply or directly, the conflict never becomes concrete. It makes perfect sense that no one’s staged the play: there simply isn’t enough drama here to sustain it. Too many pages pass in which it’s unclear who is talking to whom about what and why, and what little action there is tends not to clarify things.
Nonetheless, this is the kind of work that is so singularly itself, and so boldly unlike other things, that you have to admire its existence on some level. If Barnes was trying to become the modernist Shakespeare, she fails not for lack of talent, but because high modernism is opposed to many of the things that make Shakespeare accessible and enduringly popular. The result is a work of art a little too rarefied, too closed-off, for its own good—and alas, this is probably the reason for the play’s total obscurity. It is, for better or worse, really not for everybody. That being said, it is probably for somebody, and I hope that when they find it, it’s exactly the lost classic they were looking for.
August 27, 2008
I liked this book a lot. So much more lucid than the fever ramblings of Nightwood, yet not quite together enough to be intelligible, this play moves along the family reunion scenario as horror story: abusive children telling stories about abusive parents, parents wanting to become their children and have their children become them, missing family members whose absense is ominous. Wonderfully surreal and creepy, with a sense of humor. The last scene gets to be a little tedious, leading up to the finale, but it's forgivable for having some of the best one-liners of the play.
December 7, 2023
I feel like my fire was stolen by the review here by A. D. Jansen--he says pretty much exactly what I was going to say. Yes, the language of the poetry is super luscious, but it's the kind of verse gives poetry a bad name and makes mediocre people terrified of it. It's over my head often and I'm supposed to be a literary scholar by trade. So on one level it's an amazing work of genius, yet on another level it's pointless and alienating. But I don't exactly say that like it's a bad thing. I find such work, work hostile or totally unconcerned with its audience, a kind of pure literature of which we're just not yet worthy. We need to learn to read harder.
August 25, 2020
The joy of re-reading, as I've probably said before and will again, is that you come back to the text in a new mindset and so see different things. On this second reading I felt, profoundly, the pangs of wrestling with a family you're beginning to grow out of— and of whether that's a fair thing to feel at all. It's so beautiful.
August 1, 2024
third act so good😫
February 15, 2010
This book is a lot more fun to read in a Faber hardcover edition.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews